Other forms: mitigating, mitigated, mitigates
To mitigate is to make harm or risk less severe. Mitigate the damage, mitigating circumstances, mitigate the risk.
It reduces rather than prevents, which is exactly the distinction climate policy draws between mitigation and adaptation. Mitigating circumstances are facts that reduce blame without excusing the act. Note militate, a different word meaning to weigh against — militate against is correct and mitigate against is not.
1verbmitigateTo make harm or risk less severe.
“The new flood walls should help mitigate the damage from future storms.”
mitigate is a lessening.
Also accepted in games: lessen, reduce
Latin mitigare is mitis, mild, plus agere, to make. The word means to make mild.
Proto-Indo-European <!--root 1 unknown:
*meh₁-? *meh₁y-? -->
Proto-Indo-European
*meh₁y- — mild, soft
Latin
mītigātus
Middle English
mitigaten — to relieve pain, soothe; (swelling) to abate; (hemorrhoids) to relieve; (the mind) to placate, appease; to end, check; to stop, cease
English, today
mitigate
Built from
From Middle English mitigaten (“to relieve pain, soothe; (swelling) to abate; (hemorrhoids) to relieve; (the mind) to placate, appease; to end, check; to stop, cease”), from mitigat(e) + -en, borrowed from Latin mītigātus, the perfect passive participle of mītigō (“to make soft, ripe; to tame, pacify”), from mītis (“gentle, mild, ripe”) + -igō (“to do, make”), of uncertain origin, but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European meh₁y- (“mild, soft”).better source needed
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA